The deadline is fast approaching, everyone. Brace yourselves. Recruiting as we know it will change forever.

Pay no attention to that 66-year-old man juking and jiving and Harlem Shaking while the cameras are rolling. Remember, this is all about protecting the innocence of high school recruits!

One of Bret Bielema's first priorities at Arkansas was recruiting. But, even he knows it's the recruits who have all the pull—not the coaches. (AP Photo)

“The biggest sham going,” says one BCS coach.

And what a surprise, recruiting is at the center of it all.

By Wednesday afternoon, we’ll know if the NCAA’s new relaxed recruiting proposal (nutshell: call whoever you want, whenever you want, however many times you want) will be upheld to allow grown men to take advantage of young men—or if those true do-gooders get their way and protect high school recruits from the overwhelming burden of ignoring a phone call.

Now, some perspective: they’re one in the same.

The same coaches who complain about the new recruiting rules of unfettered access to recruits, are the same coaches who will send 100 pieces of mail to the same recruit on a single day.

The same coaches who decry where recruiting is headed and how it has left young men unable to concentrate on academics, are the same coaches who go until the 11th hour to try and flip recruits.

The same coaches who say new NCAA recruiting rules have turned the process into a glamour show of he with the most money wins, are the same coaches dancing on those “impromptu” Harlem Shake videos that magically appear on social media. There’s a reason Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, a stoic and reserved man publicly, was channeling his inner Jay Z for a suddenly viral video: recruiting.

He looks cool. And if he looks cool and connected to the younger generation, well, that’s one less hurdle to navigate when those four- and five-star recruits show up in Blacksburg, Va., on an official visit.

“The biggest thing is connecting, building relationships,” says Arkansas coach Bret Bielema. “It’s about reaching a young man and having him trust you. But ultimately, they control the process.”

Finally, some sense in this overhyped, overreaction of a rules change that will actually change nothing. No matter what happens at the Wednesday deadline —whether the proposal is adopted or overridden—players still control the board.

Why else would some coaches offer cash or illegal benefits to land players? Why else would some coaches risk multimillion-dollar contracts—risk their very livelihoods—to land a recruit by breaking the rules?

The process is broken, everyone, because players control it.

Soft commitments. Silent commitments. Fake commitments.

Verbal commitments, but still taking official visits. And on and on.

Earlier this year, for the first time in five years, a mega recruit didn’t extend the recruiting process past National Signing Day. Think about that for a moment: Recruiting starts as early as their freshmen seasons in high school, yet a player decides he’s going to wait two or three weeks beyond NSD to make his decision.

After four years of hearing every possible sales pitch, Bryce Brown, Terrelle Pryor, Seantrel Henderson and Jadeveon Clowney (and plenty of others) needed a little more Me Time. Now all of a sudden, unlimited phone calls will be the end of recruiting as we know it.

We’re giving players too little credit—and not nearly enough criticism. A majority verbally commit prior to their senior seasons, yet take official recruiting trips anyway to see different cities and meet new people and be treated like they’re the only player on the board.

These are the guys football coaches want to protect. These are the guys who understand the process of a soft verbal (I’m still taking official visits, coach), but can’t comprehend the ignore button on a phone. Or simply can’t tell a coach you’re out.

These are the guys we must protect from the system designed to “exploit” them.

Last month, new Tennessee coach Butch Jones was speaking to a Vols booster club when the subject turned to the NCAA’s new recruiting proposals. One of the reasons the NCAA decided to eliminate limits on phone calls was the inability to enforce.

Jones spoke about the need for “young adults to have a life” instead of the constant harassment of the recruiting process.

“We have a speed limit for a reason,” Jones told the booster club, according to The Tennessean. “But you never hear the law enforcement agencies say, ‘We can’t enforce it, so we’re just going to do away with the speed limit.’”